HolocaustDenial

=Austrian author who denied the Holocaust goes on trial... on Hitler's 120th birthday= By [|Daily Mail Reporter] Last updated at 4:10 PM on 20th April 2009 Austrian Gerd Honsik insists he is not racist, anti-Semite, National Socialist or a Holocaust denier An Austrian right-wing extremist author went on trial today, Hitler's 120th birthday, on charges of promoting denial of the Holocaust and aspects of the Nazi era. Gerd Honsik, 67, was sentenced in Austria to 18 months' prison in 1992 for propagating Holocaust denial in his book 'Acquittal for Hitler?' but fled during his appeal to Spain where he spent 15 years. He was extradited to Austria in 2007. Honsik faces up to 20 years prison on the new charges of 're-engagement' in public promotion of Nazi ideology, in part via the Internet, in his magazine 'Halt' and several books. 'One hundred and 20 years after Hitler's birth there are still people denying his atrocities. That's not just sad, it's dangerous,' prosecutor Stefan Apostol said in his opening statement. 'His ideas could find resonance among those who are unemployed or have little education. Honsik isn't just some little Nazi, he's a leading revisionist, a falsifier of history, someone who misrepresents what he really is,' said Apostol. Honsik pleaded innocent to the charges. 'The indictment is wrong on four counts - I am not a racist, anti-Semite, National Socialist or a Holocaust denier,' he said. 'Mr Prosecutor, you are dealing with a humanist!' He said he had no idea he was committing an offence when he explicitly disputed the existence of Nazi gas chambers in his magazine in 1994. He said that after his flight to Spain, he revised his views 'so I would not be misunderstood'. Honsik's 87-year-old lawyer, Herbert Schaller, denounced what he called 'a typical show trial'.
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He said the existence of gas chambers was 'no fact, rather just the prevailing view'. Schaller called for relevant evidence to be presented. A verdict in the trial was expected later this week. Spain twice rebuffed requests for Honsik's handover, saying Holocaust denial and neo-Nazi propaganda were not illegal in that country. He was finally extradited after two European-wide arrest warrants were issued at Austria's behest. Two far-right, anti-foreigner parties combined for almost a third of votes in Austria's 2008 national election. They have have been accused of harbouring neo-Nazis but denied it. Austria was part of the Third Reich in 1938-45 and provided a significant number of top Nazi leaders, including Hitler.
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